christopher price

Locked out of Gillette, many Patriots working out at Bommaritos in South Florida

For the last few years, it’s been Gillette south, a workout facility where present and former Patriots can gather and stay in shape in the South Florida sun.

Bommarito Performance Systems, based out of South Florida, caters to all sorts of athletes, but the last few years, there’s been a large number of current and former Patriots who have made the place a second home. It’s a group that includes Wes Welker, Rob Gronkowski, Fred Taylor, Darius Butler, Donte Stallworth and Marcus Stroud.

Welker was particularly effusive of the work done at BPS, saying it was the perfect “one-stop shop” for an athlete seeking to train in the South Florida area.

“For me, I still have a house down there from when I played [with the Dolphins]. So having my house there, having a trainer that I knew, having that other guys that train the same place I do,” said Welker.

“Traffic is not as bad as a lot of places, especially L.A. — I can find parking, which is nice. Then, it’s a one-stop shop there – I can get massages there, I can train there, they have a swimming pool, a field like this outside. They have everything. It’s been nice to go to my own home and stay there, and kind of enjoy it.”

Bommarito’s facility usually sees a good amount of activity during the NFL offseason, but with players locked out since the spring, they’ve been left to their own devices when it comes to staying in shape. As a result, BPS, founded by Pete Bommarito, has seen as many as 100 different NFL players at one time or another this offseason for a workout, including Chad Ochocinco, who tweeted pics during a recent workout at Bommaritos. While many Patriots have gathered in the Foxboro area for informal workouts, Welker, Gronkowski and Butler have all spent a lot of time at BPS this offseason.

Players take advantage of the two football fields — one turf, one grass — as well as the 3,000 square-foot weight room, a 2,000 square-foot pool and hot tub, state of the art cardio equipment and a full support staff that includes trainers, chiropractors, masseuses, nutritionists and an in-house chef to get everything they need when it comes to keeping in good condition.

“We get a lot of NFL players in here regardless, but the numbers have grown each and every year because of word of mouth,” Bommarito said. “This year, because of the lockout, we’ve definitely gone over the 100 mark for the first time in our career. Not 100 players the same day — we have had guys come in in January, February and March at different times — but to be over 100 at this point is kind of amazing. To hit the century mark when you haven’t even hit June or July yet is remarkable.”

When it comes to New England players, Bommarito credits the increase in members of the Patriots roster to Fred Taylor, who talked up Bommarito’s among his teammates the last few seasons. While Taylor suffered some hard-luck injuries in his relatively brief career with New England, his words still carried a lot of weight with the younger players in the locker room.

“I attribute a lot of that to Fred,” Bommarito said of the uptick in New England players. “It was just word-of-mouth.”

It also helps having someone who played for Patriots coach Bill Belichick on your staff. Marc Megna is a Fall River native who was a defensive lineman at Richmond, and then was a sixth-round pick of the Jets with the Jets in 1999 before spending the 2000 season with the Patriots (he also played for the Bengals, as well as in the CFL).

Megna is currently on staff at Bommarito’s as a strength and conditioning coach.

“I’m definitely not a guy who knows everything — I just try and share my experience. I just tell these guys to put yourself in position to be successful. You don’t want to leave any decision up to the coaches,” said Megna, who played for Belichick, Bill Parcells, Pete Carroll and Dick LeBeau. “I know that coach Belichick is all about attention to detail — you don’t want to be late, and you need to know exactly what you are doing the whole time.”

Another thing that teams like about sending players to BPS is that they have a fairly well-established relationship with teams when it comes to preparing a workout plan for a player when they leave the facility.

“Teams are happy to send a player to a place like this. In a non-lockout year, it’s a little trickier — teams want to control and they should have control,” Bommarito said. “But what we do is make sure that when a player comes down here, we contact a team and let them know they have a player here. Our goal is the ultimate health of a player -- any info they can give us that will help a player out, we will welcome that with open arms. A lot of teams are very appreciative of fact that we are so open when it comes to giving and receiving information.”

“We try and do the best job we can and send a player back to team as fast as possible. It would be financially better to have them stay here with us, but I don’t want to be greedy,” he added. “I’d much rather have teams respect us instead of hoarding as many players down here as long as possible.”

While it appears now that Taylor, a free agent, will be playing elsewhere next season, the role of Bommarito’s chief booster in the New England locker room will likely fall to Welker, who has been a regular during the lockout. Welker didn’t spend much time at Bommarito’s last offseason, as he was rehabbing his injured knee, but Bommarito believes that Welker’s offseason work this year will raise some eyebrows.

“He’s the type of guy who isn’t happy with just maintaining year-to-year — he wants to build on his performance. It doesn’t matter about age,” Bommarito said. “He was a sick athlete coming in, but I think people in New England will be very, very happy with where he’s at right now.”

Megna has worked closely with Welker this offseason, and says Welker has looked “100 percent.”

“When Wes has been out there with all the guys are doing drills, he looks quick as can be and very explosive. I don’t see a hitch or anything at all. He looks fantastic — he’s moving exceptionally well. He’s in top shape and it looks like he’s ready to go 100 percent.”

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